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First hi-fi item purchased

Just dug out the receipts from 1st April 1978. I was 17 at the time and in the 6th form at school and had an evening job at Tesco stacking the shelves for £4 for a 4 hour shift, two evenings a week.
From Comet in Cheltenham a Garrard GT20 with a Shure M75 ED2 cartridge cost £62.90, and a Sansui 221 Tuner/Amp cost £59.94. I remember they didn't have the speakers I wanted and could afford, so went to Spa Vision and got a pair of SSC speakers for £29.00. A few weeks after that a pair of Trio KH32 headphones for £15.50 from Rediffusion .
Added an Akai CS-702D cassette deck six months later as early 18th birthday present, £102.90 from Comet. The record deck, receiver and speakers had all been upgraded within 12 months - upgraditus had begun!
Wonderful memories of that time in my younger life, I'm glad I've kept all the receipts too.
 
The first record player was a second hand Thorens TD 160 with a Shure cartridge. Cannot recall the model number but it wasn't the V15 and it had the Thorens arm rather than an SME which I wanted but couldn't afford. It was a good purchase since the TD 160 hadn't been out long and the owner had sawn off half the headshell to lighten it which was a thing at the time and probably put people off enough for me to be able to afford. I was pleased to find a "proper" second hand turntable within my budget.

The amplifier and speakers were magazine article DIY jobs due to severe teenage financial constraints. Would have preferred the credibility (to a teenager) of known and respected current hi-fi models/brands but it wasn't an option. Funding was after school, weekend and holiday jobs like serving petrol, cleaning second hand fork lift trucks, picking up stones for a new golf course, helping deliver milk, painting the house,... Parents blocked a paper round on the grounds of exploitation given the rate of pay. The amplifer was the Linsley Hood 75W design and the speakers were the small Daline transmission lines because I got impatient waiting for enough money to accumulate to afford B139 woofers for a "proper" transmission line. Used a pair of very cheap beaten up speakers from a second hand furniture shop while waiting for the money for the "hi-fi" speakers but cannot recall the brand.
 
Proper Hi-Fi?

Summer 1983. Ariston RD80SL / Linn Basik LVX / Linn Basik (fairly soon replaced by a Supex SM-100), Nytech 252, Celestion SL6, original Foundation stands, 2x Sound Organisation tables.
 
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My first separates were an Hitachi receiver, a JVC direct drive TT and a pair of Wharfedale Linton XP2. Maybe 1978/79?
Replaced with a NAD3130 and a Dual TT a few years later..
Not sure where hi fidelity kicked in...
 
NAD 1600 Monitor Series tuner/preamp. Followed by Adcom GFA 535mkII amp many months later. Finally some B&W 600i bookshelf speakers. Paid for by side jobs here and there during high school.
 
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Probably 1980 - a Toshiba pc-x12 cassette deck to hook up to my parents' garrard sp25 Mk iv/ Eagle Aa4/omar Wendovers.

unashamed combination of best discount and most lights/switches!

I still like lights!
 
BSR MP60 deck, around 1971/2. Can’t remember what the cartridge was. Couldn’t afford (mono) amp or speakers, so built a Sinclair Project 60 (at least the only way was up) and a Wharfedale Unit 3 in trendy natural chipboard finish.
 
Fuller said:
Just dug out the receipts from 1st April 1978. I was 17 at the time and in the 6th form at school and had an evening job at Tesco stacking the shelves for £4 for a 4 hour shift, two evenings a week.
From Comet in Cheltenham a Garrard GT20 with a Shure M75 ED2 cartridge cost £62.90, and a Sansui 221 Tuner/Amp cost £59.94. I remember they didn't have the speakers I wanted and could afford, so went to Spa Vision and got a pair of SSC speakers for £29.00. A few weeks after that a pair of Trio KH32 headphones for £15.50 from Rediffusion .
Added an Akai CS-702D cassette deck six months later as early 18th birthday present, £102.90 from Comet. The record deck, receiver and speakers had all been upgraded within 12 months - upgraditus had begun!
Wonderful memories of that time in my younger life, I'm glad I've kept all the receipts too.
Click to expand...

My Rotel RA311 and Goodmans Ministers were from Comet in Birmingham, they didn't have my first choice, which might have been Celestion or Wharfdale. Didn't matter I just had to go home with a pair of speakers. Bit more discerning now!
 
I was thinking about what I owned before my ‘proper Hi-Fi’ mentioned earlier.
From somewhere I acquired two TripleTone Mono valve amplifiers.
( Yes, 6 x bakelite tone control knobs ! )

The speakers were small Elac drivers in cabinets made by a local carpenter.
As for the turntable, it was a cheap Garrard with a Sonotone 9TA-HC cartridge.
( I’m surprised I remember that old Sonotone...)

I remember selling the TripleTone amps. to fund my ‘proper Hi-Fi’.
Didn’t get much for them.
I suspect they’re sought after these days.
 
Bought two amplifiers at a jumble sale as a kid 13/14 for 50p each. Cambridge Audio P50 and Trio KA-4002. Trio needed recapping on the PS, but the Cambridge went on to work for 3 or 4 years. It accumulated a Decca cassette deck and a rim drive Garrard TT as I could
My father insisted that hi-fi speakers were a waste of money and that only cabinet volume mattered so put 2 Goodmans CX35 car speakers in 1/2 ply boxes, each 2ft x 1ft x 1ft....

After the Cambridge died I moved to the Trio and added B&W DM100i speakers and a Yamaha CD-X5 cdp and an Ariston Q-Deck TT. In hindsight the B&W's should have been the Wharfedale Diamond 3 I nearly bought instead.
 
Two vinyl albums in 1978, before I had the means to play them.

Then came a simple Yamaha CR-420-based system with a belt-drive TT and crappy pair of bass-reflex loudspeakers.
 
Sony TA-F35. 1981.

sony-ta-f35-1185853.jpg


Mistakingly replaced by a 3020 the year after. The Sony was so much better!
 
NAD 3020a from a junk shop. My parents would like to think it was an Amstrad "music centre" but it really, really wasn't.
 
Sony Walkman for Christmas 84, Philips portable stereo with detachable speakers the following Christmas ( perhaps neither strictly 'Hifi' ) Sennheiser headphones with the yellow ear pads for a birthday present.
First hifi I bought myself was a Mitsibushi Nicam stereo VHS recorder £600 and 25" TV £500 (1992) Rega 2, Goldring MM, Rotel amp and Mission speakers and stands £750, then a Marantz CD player and a Yamaha tape deck £250 each I think, then another Yamaha tape deck and an Audio Alchemy Dac in a Box. £200 each, I bought 7 pairs of interconnects and a digital interconnect, all Ixos and Cable talk speaker cable and a Target 5 tier hifi table, I later added a Denon tuner.
I got alot of pleasure out of that system, looking at the prices now I paid more for a 25 inch TV than would buy a 50" nowadays.
 
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